LAcon V has announced that an award for Best Poem will be the optional additional category for the 2026 Hugo Awards being presented at the 84th World Science Fiction Convention in August 2026.
The Hugo Awards, presented annually since 1953, are the most prestigious awards in speculative fiction. Existing Hugo Award categories recognize novels, short stories, films, graphic novels, art, editing, and genre criticism.
“Speculative poetry has a long and storied tradition. Arguably the first works of speculative fiction were epic poems like the Epic of Gilgamesh and The Iliad,” LAcon V chair Joyce Lloyd said. “We’re pleased to invite the membership of this Worldcon to nominate and vote on their favorite works of speculative poetry from the past year.”
This will be the second time that a Hugo Award has been presented for poetry, after the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle ran the category as a special category. The winning work was “A War of Words,” by Marie Brennan.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm for the Best Poem category in Seattle,” Hugo Awards administrator Tammy Coxen said. “We felt that running the category for an additional year would help provide data about its long-term viability before the business meeting chooses whether or not to ratify the amendment and add Best Poem to The Hugo Awards as a permanent category.”
The rules for the category are the same as were used in 2025: “Best Poem: A science fiction or fantasy poem of any line length or word count.” The vote to ratify the Best Poem category, thereby making it a permanent one, will be held at LACon V.
Nominations for the Hugo Awards, to be presented at LAcon V, will open in February 2026. To nominate works, including for Best Poem, a person must purchase a membership to LAcon V before January 31, 2026, or be a member of the previous Worldcon. After nominations have closed, the final ballot will be announced, and all members of LAcon V will be able to vote for the winners in each category.
The Hugo Awards— whose trophies are iconic chrome-plated rocket ships—are are the gold standard for excellence in speculative fiction. They are named after Hugo Gernsback, a famous magazine editor and founder of Amazing Stories, the first major American SF magazine. Hugo Awards are awarded each year by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) at that year’s Worldcon.
